Closure for car openings



Oct. 14, 1958 B. H. FORD ETAL. 2,855,992

CLOSURE FOR CAR- OPENINGS Filed May 11, 1955 N V EN TORS ATTORNEYS.

CLOSURE FOR CAR OPENINGS Barton H. Ford, Omaha, Nebr., and Michael J. Ford, Wheaton, 1]].

Application May 11, 1955, Serial No. 507,521

12 Claims. (Cl. 160-368) This invention relates to a closure for car openings, and is particularly useful as a grain door or a panel for sealing a railroad car opening.

In the fabrication of grain doors, and the like, itis common to extend prefabricated doors consisting of flexible paper or rigid. paper board equipped with reinforcing straps across the door opening, the reinforcing straps being secured to the door frame. At the bottom of the door is secured a pryboard which protects the rather fragile retaining door when the outer permanent doors of the car are being sprung apart for the inspection of the grain, etc. Further, at the top of the retaining door or panel is secured a top board which enables the operator after installing the door on the inside, to climb over the door without injuring it as he leaves the car. It has also been common to extend tension wires or rods between the central portion ofoppositely-disposed retainer doors so that the weight of the grain, etc., against the central portions of the doors is thus divided between the doors and preventing excessive bulging of the central portions of the doors. However, in such practice, it is necessary to extend the rods or wires through the door and then the operator must climb out of the car and secure the wires, etc. to a brace or other means lying outside of the car, an operation which is time-consuming and diflicult because of the narrow ledge available, and often because ladders, etc. are necessary.

An object of the present invention is to provide simple and effective means for providing a prefabricated door which may be installed with a minimum of effort and enabling the tension wires to be secured by the operator on the inside of the car. A further object is to provide a door of the character described which dispenses with the need for a pryboard and a top board as separate installations. A still further object is to provide a door or panel for a railway car opening which may be installed with a minimum of effort and time while at the same time effectively sealing the door opening against the escape of grain or other granular material and while also providing an effective support for the central portion of the door against outward bulging. Yet another object is to provide an approved type of car opening door or panel producing better sealing, stability, and providing greater insurance against the escape or loss of grain or other. granular material being shipped. Other specific objects and advantages will appear as the specification proceeds.

The invention is shown, in an illustrative embodiment, by the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a broken perspective view of a portion of a railway car equipped with doors embodying our invention; Fig. 2, a transverse sectional view, the section being taken as indicated at line 2-2 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3, a

States Patent 2,855,992 Patented Oct. 14, 1958 ings, along the vertical sides of which are secured door panels 10, usually consisting of wooden beams.

The door openings of the car are higher than the door or closure B, so that the operator in the car may climb over the space between the top of the door B and the top of the door opening, as illustrated more clearly in our Patent No. 2,599,443, which shows the complete car and the space above the closure. I

The new closure or door B, constituting our invention, comprises panels 11 and 12, which are substantially identical in construction. The composite door B is secured along its sides by nails 13 or other suitable means to the door frame 10.

The panels 11 and 12 are secured together near their adjacent edges by the brace bar or T-bar 14, which has laterally-extending flanges 15 engaging the outer edge portions of the panels 11 and 12 and which are shown secured to the panels 11 and 12 by bolts 16. The inwardly-extending stem 17 of the T-bar is provided with a plurality of spaced transverse openings 18 through which the tie-rods or tie-wires 19 are extended. -It will be understood that any suitable wires, rods or other tie means may be employed for securing the T-bars 14 on opposite sides of the car and they may be tied or secured in any desired manner.

Each of the panels 11 and 12 is provided with a frame 20, which may be formed of wood, plastic, composition wood such as Masonite, plywood, or the like. The web 21 secured to the frame and extending across the main body of the door may be formed of reinforced flexible paper, corrugated board, paper reinforced with glass fibers, nylon threads, etc., or any other suitable type of closure material. In the specific illustration given, we have shown a strip of corrugated board 21 extending between the wooden frame members 20, as shown more clearly in Fig. 2, and at the outer end of each door we prefer to turn the corrugated board or other sealing material outwardly so as to form a sealing flap 22 between the car door B and the frame 10. Similarly, at the inner side of the door, we turn the corrugated board 21 outwardly and rearwardly to form a sealing flap 23 lying against the flange 15 of the T-bar or brace bar 14.

Each of thepanels or webs 21 is preferably extended beyond the bottom frame member 20 and turned .inwardly to form a sealing flap 24. One of the .sealing flaps 24 is preferably provided with an auxiliary flap 25 adapted to be folded over to cover the intervening space between the two flaps 24, lying upon the bottom of the car, as illustrated best in Fig. 3.

The brace bar or T-bar 14 may be formed of metal, wood, plastic, etc., and may be fabricated or extruded, as desired. The brace is rigid and provides a support for the inner adjacent ends of the panels 11 and 12. The brace bar 14 may be in the T shape illustrated, or, if desired, the bar may be equipped with a pair of spaced flanges 15, thus forming an H shape, the spaced flanges 15 receiving the door panels 11 and 12 therebetween. It will also be understood that the bar 14 may be equipped with various interlocking ribs or members adapted to interlock with recesses or ribs carried by the door panels 'the'brace bar.

The sealing flaps 22 and 23 may be allowed to remain freely in position, but we prefer to secure them by means of glue or other adhesive to the frame 20 so that they lie constantly in the close-fitting position shown in Fig. 2.

. Operation In theoperation of the structure, the door panel 11 or 12 is first secured in position by nailing one side with nails 13, as illustrated. The T-bar 14 may then be secured to the attached frame panel 11 by the bolts 16. In actual practice, we prefer to have the T-bar 14 already attached to one of the panels, say, for example, panel 11, so that the operators installing the door need connect only the other panel 12 at the time of the installation. To facilitate the installation of the door, we prefer to have the bolts 16secured at their heads already to the T-bar 14 so that the operator, in assembling the second door panel 12, need only insert the door frame with the predrilled openings therein over the inwardly-extending bolts 16 and then can insert and draw tight the nuts 26. The opposite end of the panel 12 may then be secured by nails 13 to the door frame member 10. In the foregoing installation, the flaps 24 are turned inwardlyto provide a seal, and the auxiliary flap 25 may be turned down to the position shown'best in Fig. l. The operator can then extend the tie-wires 19 through the openings 18- in the brace bars and draw them taut and clinclrthem with pliers or other means to secure the tie-wires firmly in position while the operator remains within the car. There is no need to attach pryboards and top boards because theframe members 20 provide these boards. The operator, aftercompleting the closure as described may then escape from the car over the top of the door B, which extends well below the top of the car opening.

- In the foregoing operation, the extended flaps 22 and 23form a tight seal against the escape of granular material while the free flaps 24 at the bottom of the door utilize the weight of the granular material for forming an effective seal. The space between the flaps 24 may be calked or sealed by any means, but we prefer to use the auxiliary flap 25 'because it may readily be turned into position to seal this space. The flexible paper, reinforced with glass fibers, etc., or the corrugated board 21' or other similar known material, is effective in not only retaining the grain or granular material but also effectively seals the space about the door frame to prevent the escape of fine granular material. Bulging of the door panels is'effectively prevented by the brace bars and the connecting tension Wires or straps. All of the assembly operations are completed conveniently by the operator within the interior of the car and within a modicum of time.

The panels 11 and 12 may be secured in a preliminary or prefabricated condition by means of glue or other strong adhesive means, so that they may be shippcd or handled readily, the final securing means for the parts being provided at the time of installation as by the nails 13 and the bolts 16.

While, in the foregoing specification, we haveset forth a specific structure in considerable detail for the purpose of illustrating an embodiment of the invention, it will be understood that such details of structure may be varied widely. by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of our invention.

Weclaim:

1. Aclosure for a car opening, comprising a pair of panels each comprising a frame having secured thereto a web, the web being folded outwardly about at least one edge'of the panel to form a sealing flap, a brace bar havbrace bar having a stem extending between the inner edges of said panels andhavinglaterally-extending outer edges, said stem being apertured to receive tie members, said door panels each comprising a perimetric frame, a web carried by said frame, and having side flaps folded inwardly to provide sealing flaps, and a bottom flap folded inwardly to abut the floor ofthe car.

3. The structure of claini 2, in which the web member extends between two frame members.

4. The structure of claim 2, in which the flanges of the brace bar are equipped with bolts and in which the inner edge portions of the panels are provided with openings for receiving said bolts.

5. In combination with -a car opening, a pair of frame members spaced apart at their inner edges, a T-bar having flanges engaging the outer edges of the frames and a stemextending inwardly 'therebetween, a web secured to each of said frames and having a bottom flap extending inwardly, means for securing the outer edges of the frame members to the frame of the car, means for securing the flanges of the T-bar to the inner edges of the frame member, and an auxiliary flap carried by at least one of the bottom flaps'for bridging the space between the bottom flaps.

6. In combination with a car having a pair of oppositely-disposed door openings, a brace bar in each of said openings havinglaterally-extending flanges and having an inwardly-extending stern, said stern being provided alongitsyertical'surface with spaced openings, panels in each of said door openings secured to the flanges of the brace baron opposite sides of the stem and having their outer ends secured to the car portions adjacent the opening, and tie members engaging the openings in the stem of both brace bars and extending across the car interior.

7. The structure of claim 6, in which the tie members are flexible elements which are extended through the openings of the brace bars and stretched across the car interior to confine the brace bars against outward movement.

8. In combination with a car having oppositely-spaced door openings and vertical frame members about the openings, a'pair of closures, each closure comprising at least a pairof door panels having their outer edges secured to the door frame and having their inner edges closelyhdjacent each other, a brace bar having laterallyextending front flanges secured to the inner edges of said panels and having anintegral, inwardly-extendingstem extending between? the inner edges of said panels, said stern extending "inwardly of said door panels, and tiewires secured to the stems-of said brace bars inwardly of the door panels and drawn taut to prevent outward movement of said brace bars.

9. The structure of. claim 8, in which a rigid support is enclosed by the outer edge of each door panel and is secured to the door frame.

10. A door closure adapted for sealing a portion of the opening 'ofa car, the car being provided with a door frame, comprising at least one door panel adapted to have its edges secured to the door frame, said door panel having a rigid post adjacent the door frame and a reinforced flexible paper portion secured to and supported by said post, said post being adapted to rest upon thefloor of the car to support said flexible reinforced body of the door panel, said flexible body portion of the door panel having its edge portion folded abut said rigid post, and nails extending through said rigid post and the folded edge portion of the door panel for anchoring the same to the door frame.

11. A door closure adapted for sealing a portion of the opening of a car having a vertical door frame about the opening, comprising a door closure adapted to have its edges sealed to said door frame, said closure comprising at least one door panel having a flexible web portion and having at least at one edge of the panel adjacent the door frame a pair of vertical posts receiving therebetween an edge portion of said web, said Web being extended about and enclosing one of said posts, said posts being adapted to rest upon the floor of the car for supporting the door panel thereon, and fastening means extending through said posts and the folded web portions of said flexible body for anchoring said door panel upon said door frame.

12. The structure of claim 10, in which an integral Refierences Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS French Oct. 2, 1917 Brandon Oct. 24, 1944 

